Is University a massive rip off?

In the next few weeks students and parents will be shopping for cheap 24-piece cutlery sets that will eventually go missing and frying pans that will grow unidentified species inside, after remaining unwashed under a precarious pile of dishes, rivalling the height of the Shard.

As results day came and went last week and students found out if they got a place at their dream university,I thought back to my own results day and the stress and anxiety it took to get me there.

By that time in my education it had been hammered into me that results were everything, university was everything.

Now don't get me wrong, I had a fantastic time at university. I learnt some valuable life lessons and met the most amazing people (including my now husband) but now as I think back on the pressures students are under to perform and the postgrad struggles that tend to follow, I can't help wondering if it's all worth it

If you want to be a doctor, teacher, lawyer or similar profession that require specific training then absolutely university is for you. But what about all the other jobs? Perhaps university isn't the answer for everyone and we should remove the stigma that not going is bad. Most post-grads find themselves in roles that are just over minimum wage working for exposure and contacts in their work fields.

You'll see many post grads working in bars and restaurants struggling to make ends meet before they find THE job. They then find themselves exactly where they would have been if they had never of gone in the first place, in some cases wasting four years of professional working life. The system in place is fundamentally broken. Under any other circumstances would your school and parents pressure you into signing up for a £35,000 loan? I doubt it very much.

There are no laws put in place by the government that requires a company to pay post graduates a minimum salary despite requiring applicants to have a degree.

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So therefore you find that many students can't even begin to pay back their student loans until five or so years into their careers and that's even if they stay in the same role and they get promoted. Surely that's just bad for the economy to have hundreds of thousands of students unable to ever pay back their student loans? Most people never even pay them back, isn't it in the government's interest to put something in place that guarantees post-grads a realistic salary that also allows them to pay back their student loan. This would mean that postgraduates would be better off whilst paying back their debt and spending more, which generates more money for the UK's economy; thus bettering the country as a whole.

I know someone who has just graduated and was so excited to get to work earning a healthy salary in the 'real' word but they are still struggling in the over saturated post graduate pool. With hours spent on applications and individual cover letters, only for them to be completely ignored. Since when did it become acceptable for companies to just not to respond to applications knowing how long it takes to apply.

It's just plain rude.

Here are a few things that the older generations just don't understand about applying for work in 2019 Britain.

n You cannot just walk into a company with your CV, they will call security and blacklist you.

n Every job you apply for requires you to fill in the company application, which is just the same information that is on your CV. You must also attach your CV…

n Just because you have a degree, doesn't mean you will be paid well.

n If other people leave the company you work at, you will be doing the extra work for the same money.

n Just because you work in a coffee shop or bar doesn't mean you are stupid, the person serving you probably has several degrees.

It is well known that Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates never completed their degrees and went on to create the most successful businesses in the world. Many of the people I went to college with who didn't go to university are way more 'successful' than the 'intellectuals' who went to university. I think it's time we accepted that university is not the only worthwhile future and that each individual is suited to a different path.